Did Microsoft Make A Rape Joke At Its E3 Presentation?

Microsoft made waves with its debut of the Xbox One console at E3 on Monday, but one part of its demonstration has been widely criticized. At one point in the keynote presentation, an employee appeared to make a rape joke toward a female employee as an example of “friendly” trash talk.

Other online reaction to Microsoft’s rape joke was decidedly negative. Jonathan Blow, designer for the hit indie game Braid, remarked that the conversation was remarkably distasteful and far too similar to a rape joke for comfort.

"Let's bring a woman on stage and joke about how she's bad at games, and say stuff like 'relax, just let it happen, it'll be over soon??’” he tweeted. “‘Relax and try to enjoy it, it'll be over soon’ is classic bad male advice to potential female rape victims.”

"I am not sure how it was not a rape joke. I mean, it was a joke (laughter from audience)," he continued. “If it wasn’t at least vaguely about rape, then what was funny about the sentence?”

In response to the controversy, a Microsoft spokesman told Kotaku that the remarks were not scripted and did not mean to convey any "ill intent."

“The comments in question during the 'Killer Instinct' demo were not scripted," he said. "The demo was meant to include friendly gameplay banter and there was there was no ill intent.”